Decisions, decisions

If the hardest decision you’ll be making today is what to watch on Netflix after work, you’re not alone. The amount of content available on streaming services has exploded over the past few years, leading to tougher and tougher choices, decision paralysis, and more arguments between couples than we can count.

• The number of shows and movies on streaming services has jumped 39% over the past two years to reach ~2.4 million, per Nielsen Research’s recently released 2023 State of Play report.
• There are now 167 streaming providers, up from 118 two years ago.

Experts attribute these increases mainly to the rise of free, ad-supported streaming services like Pluto, Tubi, and Freevee. But more money content = more problems – for consumers, at least.

Faced with an abundance of choices, it’s becoming harder and harder for people to decide what to watch. The average time taken to pick a show/movie to stream was around seven minutes in 2019; now it’s over 10 minutes. And, according to survey data from Nielsen, 20% of people say they don’t know what to watch beforehand and couldn’t find something to watch – so they did something else instead✌️.